Name: Battlestations: Pacific
Publisher: Eidos
Developer: Eidos
Genre: Action-strategy
Maybe it’s just me, but World War 2 seems to have quite a number of games representing it already. WWII has become the butt of a lot of sarcastic jokes about how overrepresented it is in video games. From shooters to strategy games, WWII has lasted quite possibly longer in all video game forms put together than the actual war. Perhaps it’s the heroic struggle against a unanimously evil enemy, or just the vast updates to warfare that made WWII such a deep source for material. Regardless, we find ourselves with yet another dropping of the Second World War. Battlestations: Pacific is a slightly different take on WWII, combining action and strategy, but also focusing mostly on naval combat. Does this new title have the power to make WWII seem fresh again? Read on to find out…
Battlestations: Pacific is a strategy-action hybrid published and developed by Eidos. Battlestations: Midway was the first in the series, released about 2 years ago, and met with relatively high scores. Pacific is now released as the sequel to Midway and upgrades in a few areas. With new units and maps, the sequel provides the gamer the expected upgrades that most sequels would release, though it also adds a second full-fledged campaign as the Japanese in addition to the American one. Submarine combat has also been added. While now enormous upgrades to Midway, Pacific still manages to keep the game fresh by spacing the campaign out between plane, ship, and sub combat.
The game features a nice history channel vibe, putting the player in the moment through cinematics and VO. The story follows the Americans right after the Battle of Midway or the Japanese from the Attack on Pearl Harbour onwards. The presentation is bit hit or miss, however. The menus are all very nice looking (again following the history channel), but the in-game interface is extremely cluttered with so many things flashing and spinning at the same time. The story is presented well enough, but the brutal voice acting kills it.
The sound is a downer. The soundtrack and effects are all suitable, but the VO is some of the worst I have heard in a while. The Japanese-American voice actors sound so bad, it becomes unbearable to listen to. The visuals however, are stunning. All planes and ships are rendered in extreme detail, going as far as adding little men on your battleships that will walk around doing their jobs. The water is some of the best looking in a game, ever. This fastidious attention to detail is reflected in how the game plays, as well.
Although Battlestations: Pacific is a strategy-action hybrid, it can take a while to reach the missions where strategy is necessary. The first several missions involve learning all the intricacies of flying planes and manning boats and subs. And are there ever a lot of intricacies! Multiple pages in the booklet provided with game explain how to pilot your particular craft, and even after learning how to operate them, it’s still very tricky to pilot. I had particular difficulty getting accustomed to the controls, particularly the planes.
The action gameplay is really based around the boats, but planes and subs are always there to do their job. The planes are the hardest to control, mainly because the throttle is mapped to the left thumbstick, so to do sharp turns one would pull back on the stick and turn with the right stick. However, this drops your speed completely and causes the plane to stall. The plane-focused missions are the more frustrating ones, but once the controls are mastered you will likely be dealing with whole fleets. The other half of the action is the boats and subs. Both control the same, but subs can, of course, submerge underwater. Battleships and cruisers are a joy to control, because of the sense of power you have. With a massive battleship, you have multiple torpedoes, AA flak, and a bevy of artillery turrets at your disposal. Unleashing a barrage of artillery on some unsuspecting foe is incredibly satisfying. Subs are sneaky and fun, but the missions can take a long time, because of the more stealth-focused maneuvering.
The strategy is the other part of the gameplay formula, and strategy buffs will be disappointed to know that it isn’t very robust. The premise of the gameplay is you are controlling an entire fleet of air and sea machines, and can command them all. The strategy aspect is used to keep command of your other units while your attention is drawn elsewhere. There aren’t any problems with the strategy, it works quite well actually. But, the action feels to shallow to be a standalone action game, and the strategy is not robust enough for a satisfying RTS experience. What we are left with is a game that doesn’t excel in either area it tries to accomplish.
The two campaigns are both very lengthy, spanning a good 18 or so levels each. In addition, there are skirmishes and multiplayer. The strategy seems to be a more effective gameplay addition against human opponents, so if you are an online gamer, then you will likely find any shallow strategy problems dismissible. The variety in gameplay is sure to keep gamers coming back to try to unlock some of the goodies and units available. The game’s value does credit to its name.
Battlestations: Pacific is an unusual game to play. I had fun, but its felt like work as well. The game is very closed in, and really makes you work to get to the fun stuff. If I hadn’t grappled with the controls, and nearly died listening to the VO, this experience would have been much more enjoyable. The biggest problem with the game is its identity crisis. The problem with melding genres is that if you spread your focus out, you risk making the game an overall bland experience. Battlestations: Pacific suffers from this problem. Neither the action, nor the strategy elements are very deep, so by trying to please fans of both genres, it instead has action fans getting turned off by the slow gameplay and strategy buffs bored by the shallow experience. By no means is Battlestations: Pacific bad. It has great visuals, naval combat (which is not implemented enough in games), and a ton of content. But the fun comes in chunks, and some may not want to have to work for it. For what it is, Battlestations: Pacific is average.
7.5/10
Topic: [Video Game] Battlestations: Pacific (Read 4960 times)